Reining in the rookies: How will NDP deal with so many newbies?

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OTTAWA — With a full slate of rookie candidates and a brand new status as official Opposition, the NDP's freewheeling days as Canada's most accessible and open party may be numbered.

The day after Canada's perennial fourth party won a record 105 seats in the House of Commons — more than half of them in Quebec, where the NDP previously held just one seat — leader Jack Layton assured everyone the newly elected were quite free to speak publicly.

But within a day, it wasn't 19-year-old Universite de Sherbrooke student Pierre-Luc Dusseault or Ruth Ellen Brosseau — the woman who spent part of the election campaign in Las Vegas and has yet to be reached for comment — who were talking out of turn.

It was veteran politician Thomas Mulcair — the party's so-called "den mother," tasked with teaching fledgling MPs the ins and outs, dos and don'ts of the job.

In a television interview Wednesday he said he didn't believe photos of a dead Osama bin Laden existed. Before long, the Montreal MP's comments were trending on Twitter and being picked up by U.S. media outlets.

Party spokespeople were in damage control and Mulcair attempted, not terribly successfully, to clarify his statement Thursday. He told the CBC that his confusing answer was the result of fatigue and that he was actually referring to whether the photos of the al-Qaida leader showed him with a weapon as he addressed the question of whether the shooting was about "vengeance" or "justice."

More importantly, the incident raises questions about whether the NDP might adopt a more rigid communications strategy not unlike that of the Conservative party, which requires MPs to stay firmly on message.

Queen's University political scientist Kathy Brock suggested it's not that easy.

"They're going to have to achieve a balance because they will want to keep an air of openness about them and freshness which is what brought them in to Opposition status," she said.

"On the other hand, they are going to say to MPs, 'You have to watch which issues you speak on. It can't just be opinion. You have to look at the party platform and give a responsible answer.' "

Even seasoned New Democrats, she said, need to realize that it's not business as usual. Not only are they no longer private citizens, they no longer belong to the third or fourth party — which means their public remarks take on more weight.

This is hardly the first time Parliament has welcomed a large number of new members all at once. It happened in 1984 when 143 people became MPs for the first time with Brian Mulroney's landslide victory, and again in 1993 when 205 Bloc Quebecois and Reform Party newcomers filled the opposition seats across from the Liberal government.

Deborah Grey played "den mother" to fellow Reformers back in 1993 and she certainly doesn't envy the position Mulcair now finds himself in.

"He's going to have a huge job," Grey said from British Columbia where she now works as a consultant and public speaker.

"They're just going to have any number of problems. You name it."

From understanding legislative procedure and coming to terms with what they can and can't do in their free time, to figuring out how to divide their days between constituencies and Ottawa — and knowing when to shut their mouths — the learning curve for new MPs, she said, is steep.

Grey said she learned early on that cracking the whip is critical, even for a populist-minded party committed to letting members speak out on behalf of the varying interests of constituents.

"I'm a school teacher by trade so my advice is, be really hard at the beginning of the school year and then you can always let up a little bit," she said.

"But this isn't Grade 9 fun times. It's the Parliament of Canada, so they better just learn really, really fast and just be as sharp as they can be because there's a whole lot of people watching (and) you've got to show that you're serious about the job. That you're fit to be in public office."

Former NDP strategist Ian Capstick said he helped manage new caucus members following the 2004, 2006 and 2008 elections. The first thing new MPs are told, he said, is to hold off on promising jobs to campaign staffers, to steer clear of national newspaper columnists and to get some rest.

Taking a page from his father Robert Layton who served as caucus chairman in Mulroney's government, Jack Layton has also long supported the idea of mentoring, Capstick said.

New MPs, he said, are paired with veteran members who can answer questions on everything from how to deal with an emotional constituent, to how to balance work and family life, to how to reconcile their own views with those of the party.

And for the first time, he suggested, the NDP caucus is big enough to allow veteran MPs and those with outside experience to take up shadow cabinet posts and become spokespeople, while inexperienced backbenchers learn the ropes outside of the spotlight. As such, he doesn't expect the NDP to suddenly clamp down.

"I don't foresee a wholesale change in the way Mr. Layton is going to go about his business. That's just not him," he said.

"He has a brand and part of that brand is being accessible and that brand has been transferred to the party and it would be foolhardy to change what works."

Layton reportedly met with his newly expanded caucus for the first time via teleconference Thursday to congratulate them and thank them for their hard work.

He's expected to select his shadow cabinet over the coming days and work with his new team to prepare for the upcoming Parliamentary session.

All new members are invited to take part in two non-partisan orientation sessions aimed getting people up to speed on the administrative responsibilities of the job and their role in chamber and committee. Each party will also put new members through their paces, most likely during the first caucus meeting.

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